Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Menoff, Falcons Soar Past Eagles, 6-1
March 28, 2009 | Women's Tennis
March 28, 2009
PERRYSBURG, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Senior Stefanie Menoff gave the Bowling Green State University tennis team the match-clinching point, tying a school record in the process, as the Falcons downed Eastern Michigan University by a 6-1 final Saturday afternoon (March 28). The Mid-American Conference match was held at the Perrysburg Tennis Center.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 9-4 overall and 2-1 in MAC play, while the Eagles drop to 3-13 and 0-4, respectively.
Menoff's singles win was the 79th of her BGSU career, tying the school record. That victory also gave the Falcons their fourth point of the day, clinching the win over the Eagles.
After winning two of the three doubles matches to take the first point, the Falcons would win five of the six singles matchups over Eastern.
Saturday's match marked the second-straight outing, and the ninth time in 13 dual matches, that the Falcons won the doubles point. Menoff and fellow senior Libby Harrison won their match with relative ease, downing the EMU duo of Rumbidzai Muskwe and Marcela Rivero, 8-2, at the third flight.
Eastern got a win at the middle flight, as the duo of Karina Ahuja and Xu Chang squeaked past Falcon juniors Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel, 8-6. But, senior Kelsey Jakupcin and soph Christine Chiricosta came up with a narrow 9-7 victory over the Eagles' Joanna Woo and Mariam Westerink.
In singles play, Chiricosta, Harrison and Menoff had little trouble in their matches. Harrison did not lose a single game in her sixth-flight win over Muskwe, while Chiricosta dropped a total of only three games. Chiricosta, playing at the number-one flight, defeated Westerink by scores of 6-1 and 6-2.
Chang was able to defeat Kintzel at the third flight, for Eastern's only point, but Menoff picked up her historic win at the fifth flight. The BG senior defeated Rivero by a 6-2, 6-1 result, for the 79th singles win of her stellar career.
Jakupcin and Babina had dropped their opening sets in singles play, but both players battled back to win the second set, then captured third-set 'super tiebreakers' for their respective victories. Jakupcin rallied past Ahuja at the second flight, while Babina defeated Woo at the fourth flight.
The Falcons hit the road next weekend, heading to the MAC's 'West Coast' to take on Northern Illinois University. That match, BG's lone action of the weekend, is scheduled for Friday (April 3), at 1:00 p.m. Central Time (2:00 p.m. Eastern).
FALCON TENNIS NOTES
* Senior Stefanie Menoff's 79th singles win ties her atop the BGSU career list ... Julie Weisblatt (1994-97) set the record, which was matched three years later by Deidee Bissinger (1997-2000).
* Sophomore Christine Chiricosta, playing at the top singles flight in dual-match play for the third time in her career, improved to 3-0 in such matches ... overall, she is 17-5 in singles this season and 39-12 in her BG tenure.
* Menoff is now 11-2 in dual-match action in singles, incuding a 9-1 mark at the fifth flight, this year ... she has a team-best record of 18-4 in singles this season, and is an impressive 79-19 in her career.
* Senior Kelsey Jakupcin improved to a perfect 3-0 in singles play at the number-two flight this season.
* Senior Libby Harrison moved her record to 8-2 at the sixth singles flight, and she is now 16-6 this year and 42-20 in career singles play.
* The Falcons now have won 52 dual matches since the senior class -- Harrison, Jakupcin and Menoff -- arrived on campus in the fall of 2005 ... BGSU has a mark of 52-28 in dual-match play during that time.
* Harrison, Jakupcin and Menoff have a chance to become the winningest class in program history ... currently, that distinction is held by last year's senior class of Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle ... Nussbaum and Volle helped the Falcons to total of 55 dual-match wins, the most victories in a four-year span in BGSU annals.
* The Chiricosta/Jakupcin duo has posted an 8-2 overall record in dual-match play, and that tandem is a perfect 3-0 in MAC matches this year to date ... they are 16-6 on the year and 33-12 in their careers as a team.
* Harrison and Menoff improved to 9-1 at the third flight and 10-1 in dual matches this year.
* Jakupcin now has 70 doubles wins, tying her for seventh on the BGSU career list ... Jenny Cheung holds the shool record, with 84 doubles wins from 1995-98.
* Jakupcin ranks eighth on the combined career wins list, with 136.
* With four wins this weekend, Menoff moved up three spots on the combined career list ... she now has 125 total victories as a Falcon, to rank 12th in BG history ... Menoff is two wins shy of moving into the BGSU top-10.
* BGSU's roster consists of three seniors, two juniors, one sophomore and one freshman, while EMU has no fewer than five freshmen, one soph and one senior ... all seven players on the Falcon roster hail from the United States (three from Illinois and four from Ohio), while none of the EMU players are U.S. natives, and only one is from the continent of North America.
* BGSU trails Eastern Michigan, 26-11, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Falcons now have won two-straight meetings ... EMU won 4-3 matches in each of the last two regular-season matchups, before the Falcons snapped a nine-match series losing streak with a 4-2 victory in the quarterfinal round of last year's MAC Championships (April 25, 2008).
Bowling Green 6, Eastern Michigan 1
Saturday, March 28 - Perrysburg Tennis Center
Singles
1 - Christine Chiricosta (BGSU) def. Miriam Westerink 6-1, 6-2
2 - Kelsey Jakupcin (BGSU) def. Karina Ahuja 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (2)
3 - Xu Chang (EMU) def. Samantha Kintzel 6-1, 6-1
4 - Katia Babina (BGSU) def. Joanna Woo 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (6)
5 - Stefanie Menoff (BGSU) def. Marcela Rivero 6-2, 6-1
6 - Libby Harrison (BGSU) def. Rumbidzai Muskwe 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
1 - Chiricosta/Jakupcin (BGSU) def. Westerink/Woo 9-7
2 - Ahuja/Chang (EMU) def. Babina/Kintzel 8-6
3 - Harrison/Menoff (BGSU) def. Rivero/Muskwe 8-2
